2019-01-27 17:28
This novel by Matt Wesolowski is very easy to read. I read it under a day- in a matter of hours actually- it is short but it is also a book in which I was thoroughly absorbed. Wesolowski's b… Read More
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bednarskis book
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mid seventeenth century
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"a mind trained by academia into almost fractal subtlety" Matt Sinclair of Sinclairs Musings
"I am the wisest man alive for I know one thing and that is that I know nothing" Socrates
2018-12-30 18:53
I am currently reading Andrew Roberts's book on Winston Churchill- its a good read and Roberts has an eye for a good quotation and anecdote. There are a couple of things that I'm not happy a… Read More
2017-05-31 15:45
I saw Martin Scorsese's Silence back in January and I have been thinking about it ever since. It is a film about the persecution of Christians in Japan in the mid seventeenth century and the… Read More
2017-05-21 22:26
I have tried to write a review of Lady Macbeth three times so far and failed each time. It is easy to write a synopsis of this film but I don't want to do that. The film is about one of the… Read More
2017-04-15 16:40
I was doing some research a couple of years ago in the British Library and came across John Kerr's Memories Grave and Gay- an account of his life as a school inspector. Kerr is an interestin… Read More
2016-04-20 22:35
I haven't yet finished Stephen Bednarski's book on Margarida du Portu, accused of poisoning in her medieval town in the fourteenth century. Du Portu was accused of poisoning her husband by h… Read More
2014-01-30 00:00
After seeing the film, 12 years a slave, I went away and read the book by Solomon Northup, published in 1853 on which the film is based. There are numerous features which aren't in the film… Read More
2014-01-27 09:30
Slavery is a big word. It is a horrific word, one that sums up a horrific reality in which the fortunes of a few were made with the sinews of the many. Its a concept that has been central to… Read More
2014-01-19 00:18
Who is the central character of All is lost- the recent film starring Robert Redford? I think almost everyone will say that the central character is Redford's man, played outstandingly by th… Read More
2013-04-08 08:30
Although the Ancien Regime is still quite close to us in time, since we daily come across men who were born under its laws, it already seems to be lost in the obscurity of the past. The radi… Read More
2013-04-05 09:00
Roger Ebert's death yesterday is a sad moment. There are many reasons I think why its so sad. He was one of those writers that made you feel like he would be fantastic to meet. He wrote with… Read More
2013-03-29 09:30
I have walked out of films because I found them execrably bad (Four Weddings and a Funeral), I've walked out of films because I thought the history was inaccurate (ok I didn't see JFK in the… Read More
2013-03-27 09:00
'While you are kissing your child', Epictetus once said, 'murmur under your breath, tomorrow it may be dead.' 'Ominous words' they told him. 'Not at all' he said 'but only signifying an act… Read More
2013-03-25 09:00
I'm sure that everyone has thought about the meaning of a particular metaphysical proposition for their own lives. I rather like Marcus Aurelius on this:Either things must have their origin… Read More
2013-03-23 09:00
One of the least appealing modern traits is to imagine that we've discovered everything new- in some ways that's true. The ancient world did not have television and were not plagued by endle… Read More
2013-03-21 09:00
Mislead yourself no longer, you will never read these notebooks again now, nor the annals of the bygone Romans and Greeks, nor that choice selection of writings you have put by for your old… Read More
2013-03-19 23:40
Monarchy is distinguished from tyranny by several things in the classical tradition. One might be that monarchs are restrained, whereas tyrants are servants of appetite. I've just come acros… Read More
2013-03-11 10:00
Here is a rather interesting debate on the existence of God between Bertrand Russell and F.C. Coplestone- which the Open University edited and broadcast. I'll let it stand for itself Read More
2013-03-08 10:30
I saw the Master a couple of weeks ago and tried to review it then but couldn't find the words. I'm not sure I can find them now. I was deeply impressed by the film. Images from it keep retu… Read More
2013-03-07 09:00
What's the purpose of writing history? Some people might say "to tell the truth" and that's a perfectly reasonable response- its there in one of the first history books when Herodotus talks… Read More
2013-03-05 09:00
What did the writers of the US constitution think about the major issues of economic policy? The question has a vital political importance in America because it is tied to an argument about… Read More
2013-03-01 09:00
When I was 12 and first read the Lord of the Rings I loved it. When I saw the films which came out later, I felt betrayed. Let me show you why and then explain why I think Jackson made the c… Read More
2013-02-27 09:00
I'm rereading the Lord of the Rings for the first time in a long time. I first read it when I was 12 and loved the books and the BBC radio series. It is strange to come back to it after all… Read More
2013-02-18 22:29
Does anything ever change? It seems not. In 1863 Lincoln appointed Francis Capen meteorologist to the war department, however he soon regretted his choice:It seems to me Mr Capen knows nothi… Read More
2013-02-15 14:30
Following on from seeing Lincoln on Saturday, I'm currently in the midst of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals- her account of the Lincoln administration. I remember it really as the book… Read More
2013-02-12 10:30
At one point in the film Lincoln that Steven Spielburg has just released, Lincoln comes face to face with his great radical republican opponent Thadeus Stevens and they argue about slavery… Read More
2013-02-08 16:00
On Tuesday I went to a play at the National Theatre with some friends- an adaptation of a German classic the Captain of Kopenich.We opened at a prison with all the men (disrespectfully) list… Read More
2013-02-05 15:13
I'm fascinated by ancient Israel- not for religious reasons but because for religious reasons documents have survived from a very ancient civilisation and from some quite interesting people… Read More
2013-02-03 15:02
In 1924, Miroslav Skalajkovic, the former political head of the Serb Foreign Ministry, said of the Italian invasion of Tripoli in 1911, 'all subsequent events [including the First World War]… Read More
2013-02-03 14:38
Incidentally apologies for not publishing some comments over the summer- a long hiatus that was influenced primarily by stuff happening off line- but I really do apologise! Read More
2013-01-29 10:30
Christopher Clark quotes this fragment from Stefan Zweig. I thought it worth sharingthe wind in the trees, the twittering of the birds and the music floating across the park were at the same… Read More
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